Três Pontas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Três Pontas is a city and municipality in southern Minas Gerais state, Brazil. The population in 2003 was 51,024 inhabitants distributed between 40,670 urban and 10,354 rural. The area of the municipality is 663km2.
The municipality is watered by the Verde and Sapucaí rivers (contained in the Furnas reservoir) besides several small streams. The geographical coordinates are: Latitude South: 21º 22’ 20” and Longitude: 45º 30’ 40”. The height of the city is 905 meters but in the Serra de Três Pontas the elevation reaches 1,234 mts.
The climate is tropical altitude with the average annual temperature varying between 18 and 19 ºC. Winter temperatures vary between 13 and 16 ºC and summer temperatures average 20 ºC. Average rainfall is between 1,400 and 1,700 mm.
Três Pontas is today the greatest producer of coffee in the country. There are more than 50 million coffee trees in an area of approximately 300 square kilometres, producing an average of 400 thousand sacks each harvest.
Coffee producers are members of a cooperative: Cooperativa dos Cafeicultores da Zona de Três Pontas Ltda - COCATREL [1], which has aided in the development of coffee growing in the region. It has more than 4,000 members, covers more than 60 municipalities and receives up to 1 million 200 thousand sacks in the most productive harvests.
